The National Times - Kenya's Jepchirchir outsprints Assefa for world marathon gold

The pair were neck-and-neck coming into the National Stadium after 41km run around the streets of Tokyo, the pace acclerating all the time.

Jepchirchir, grimacing, tried to pull away, but former world record holder Assefa bolted down the back straight into the final 200 metres.

Then, come the home straight, somehow the 31-year-old Kenyan found enough resources to battle back past her stuttering Ethiopian rival for a breathless gold.

Jepchirchir, Olympic champion at the same venue in the Covid-delayed 2021 Olympics, timed 2hr 24min 43sec for victory, edging Assefa, a two-time winner of the Berlin Marathon who won London earlier this year with a world-leading 2:15:50, by just two seconds.

For Assefa, there was an element of deja vu, having been edged agonisingly into silver at last year's Paris Olympics by Dutch runner Sifan Hassan.

Hassan has opted out of these worlds, having run the Sydney Marathon as she seeks to focus on the World Marathon Majors.

American Susanna Sullivan had made the early running, but was dropped at the 30km mark.

From that point on it became a duel between Assefa and Jepchirchir, with Magdalyne Masai and Uganda's Stella Chesang battling it out for third.

The latter pair also fell by the wayside, Uruguay's Julia Paternain instead rounding out the podium in 2:27:23.

F.Hammond--TNT